COSATU Daily Labour News 6 December 2006

[Patrick Craven]

COSATU Daily Labour News, 6 December 2006

 

CONTENTS

 

1. Mass protests by Numsa workers
2. Numsa in bid to force bargaining council move 
3. Sadtu to declare dispute over pay 
4. Teachers' union is fighting department for money
5. Permanently casual
6. Yet another clothing manufacturer closes its doors
7. Litany of questions at end of a bad year for prisons 
8. Failing health of public hospitals 
9. 'Most South Africans borrow money for food'
10. Inequality fuels Aids scourge
11. Fresh Zuma charge on the cards
12. ANC women condemn Mbeki snub
13. IFP youth come out in support of Mbeki
14. DBN labour department offices burnt out
15. Zimbabwe union threatens more street protests
16. Zimbabwe labour unions slam budget, vow protests
17. Zimbabwe security agents seize donated radios from teachers
18. War of words erupts on Namibian nurses' protest
19. ‘AFL-CIO determined to restore workers’ right to organize’ 

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1.

iafrica.com, 5 December

 

Mass protests by Numsa workers

Members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) are to embark on a mass protest action on 15 December to demand integration in the metal engineering industry bargaining council's main agreement.

 

"Integration into the MEIBC main agreement would enhance the workers' standard of living by ensuring uniformity in dispute resolution structures and reduction of health hazards and fatal accidents in the workplace," said Lucas Mthiyane, Numsa engineering sector chief negotiator in a statement on Tuesday.

 

A long time coming

 

The union had pressed since last year's bargaining wage talks for all house agreement companies to consider the long-standing demand for integration in the MEIBC to ensure that workers were better assessed and their benefits to improve considerably, said Mthiyane.

 

The protest follows a failed meeting that convened under the auspices of the metal and engineering industry bargaining council between the companies' chief executive officers and Numsa to resolve the dispute.

 

A national shop stewards council held last weekend had restated after declaring a dispute, its intention to go ahead with its five-day protest campaign from December with 11 2006 workers embarking on one-hour demonstrations, preceding the national picketing day on 15 December.

 

Demand rejected

 

"It appears that employers have no legitimate or clear reasons why they are not keen to formulate a special negotiations chamber within the MEIBC. They vociferously rejected our demand and forced us to declare a new dispute again," Mthiyane said.

 

Fourteen companies involved in house the agreements within the largest metal steel and engineering industry would be affected by the planned solidarity action. The protest campaign will be assessed later and continued next year.

 

Numsa is the biggest metalworkers trade union in South Africa with more than 216 000 members and was formed in 1987. It is an active affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), the biggest trade union federation in South Africa. Sapa

 

http://business.iafrica.com/news/506917.htm

 

2. Business Day, 6 December

 

Numsa in bid to force bargaining council move 

Siseko Njobeni, Trade and Industry Correspondent

 

THE National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) is set to embark on a five-day protest to force several companies to become part of the metal and engineering industry bargaining council’s main industry agreement.

 

The move is meant to coerce companies including Mittal Steel, Assmang, BHP Billiton, Columbus Stainless Steel and Highveld Steel, to become part of the agreement.

 

Numsa said it would, from Monday, embark on one-hour demonstrations for five days at companies following the failure of Numsa and companies to resolve the matter.

 

With more than 216000 members, Numsa is the biggest metal worker trade union in SA .

 

It is an affiliate of the Congress of South African Trade Unions .

 

The metal and engineering industry bargaining council facilitated failed talks between the companies and the trade union recently.

 

Numsa spokesman Mziwakhe Hlangani yesterday said in the main agreement employees and employers had reached consensus on wage increases “and other factors which relate to dispute resolution”. He said the agreement was effective for three years.

 

Hlangani said the insistence by some of the companies on so-called plant agreements put employees in those companies at a disadvantage “especially with regard to wage negotiations”.

 

Numsa engineering sector chief negotiator Lucas Mthiyane yesterday said the switch from the plant agreements to the main agreement would “ensure that the workers are better assessed and their benefits improved considerably”. Numsa also said the move would bring uniformity to dispute resolution.

 

But Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa) executive director Brian Angus yesterday said the present dispute resolution mechanisms were satisfactory.

 

Seifsa represents about 8000 of SA’s metal and engineering companies.

 

Angus also disputed Numsa’s assertion that the move would reduce health hazards and fatal accidents in the industry. “I do not see how they came to that conclusion,” he said.

 

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A335427

 

3. Business Day, 6 December

 

Sadtu to declare dispute over pay 

Sue Blaine, Education Correspondent

 

THE South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) is to declare a formal dispute with the education department over teachers’ pay after the cancellation of an Education Labour Relations Council meeting on the issue yesterday.

 

Sadtu and unions allied to the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa) claim the department has missed deadlines to finalise the restructuring of salaries of a set of teachers qualifying to be awarded increases of up to 3% over and above the annual 1% increase. These teachers were rated “good” or higher after an assessment.

 

The increase was meant to accelerate regrading for good teachers after several years of a moratorium on grade progression.

 

“We are very disappointed. Schools closed (yesterday) and teachers were depending on that money,” said Sadtu’s national negotiator, Shireen Pardesi.

 

The 220000-strong Sadtu had called a special national working committee meeting for tomorrow, at which the dispute would be officially declared, said general secretary Thulas Nxesi. This would force the unions and department to meet in the labour council early in the new year in a bid to solve the problem before schools opened.

 

Schools in inland provinces open on January 10. Coastal provinces’ schools open on January 17.

 

The department insisted it had met deadlines to finalise “pay progression” salary increases, saying the unions should provide information on any glitches.

 

“The department is ready to address the nonpayment of educators if the relevant details are provided,” said spokesman Lunga Ngqengelele. “The reasons could be that educators do not qualify or there has been an omission. Each educator’s situation is addressed individually.”

 

Naptosa president Dave Balt said the union had asked its branches to determine how many teachers who were eligible for the increase had not been paid, and it hoped to have the information ready by Friday.

 

Naptosa believed “up to 70%” of its eligible members had been paid.

 

The union federation, which represents almost 70000 of SA’s 370000 teachers, would not declare a dispute. Instead, it would provide the information in the hope of systematically ironing out problems.

 

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A335438

 

4. SABC, 5 December

 

Teachers' union is fighting department for money

 

The 2007 academic year could be off to a shaky start if a money dispute between teachers' unions and the department of education is not resolved.

The South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) and the education department are at loggerheads over money that is due to teachers. A meeting between the parties, to discuss the issue, was cancelled today. Sadtu says it will weigh up its options this week and advise its members on further action.

The union says more than 200 000 teachers are owed money. Some individuals are owed as much as R5 000 since last year. The union says claims by the department that all provinces are on track with payments, are not true. The Eastern Cape and Limpopo are lagging behind.

Inflammatory comments

The education department says comments made by Sadtu are misinformed and inflammatory; all terms agreed to have been fulfilled. The department says it is ready to address the non-payment of teachers if the relevant details are provided.

Naptosa, another teachers' union, has adopted a wait-and-see approach and it has asked teachers who have not been paid to contact them.

 

http://www.sabcnews.co.za/economy/labour/0,2172,139701,00.html

 

5. Sowetan, 6 December

 

Permanently casual

 

Lihle Z. Mtshali and Nomfundo Xulu

Casual workers account for almost a million jobs in South Africa, according to figures from the Labour Department, and trade unions are disturbed by the seemingly growing trend to use casual labour rather than employ someone on a permanent basis.

“We’re extremely concerned at the expansion of casual labour as a proportion of the total workforce because in the vast majority of cases, casual workers have lower pay, less security and less protection under the labour laws,” said Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) spokesperson Patrick Craven.

Mike Schussler, an economist at T-Sec, said companies usually took on casual workers due to flexibility, especially wheN the company does not have many workers but needs extra hands.

Private households, the wholesale and retail trade, and the construction industry use casual labour the most.

Most casual workers sign employment contracts with employment agencies and not the company they will be working for, which Cosatu believes blurs the responsibility about who is the employer and who is liable for handling workers’ issues.

This has been the case at Compact Disc Technologies (CDT) where a group of casual employees have been unable to get answers about their problems from either the company they work for, or the agency that hired them.

“We are treated like we are not humans,” said a source who wanted to remain anonymous.

CDT manufacturing manager Jamal Farah said the workers had been sourced through a recruiting agency, Capital Outsourcing Group, and it was therefore not CDT’s responsibility.

The casuals allege that some of them have been working at CDT on a casual basis for more than 10 years.

“Usually, when a person works for more than three consecutive days on a regular basis [weekly], they can no longer be considered a casual — they should be classified as permanent,” said Lavery Modise, a director at the commercial law firm Routledge Modise.

 

http://www.sowetan.co.za/szones/sowetanNEW/business/business1165383159.asp

 

6. Business Day, 4 December

 

Yet another clothing manufacturer closes its doors

 

Dave Marrs, Johannesburg

 

YET another Western Cape clothing manufacturer closed its doors last month. Rockland Textile was a black economic empowerment venture that came into being about a year ago when Towles Edgar Jacobs, formerly one of the biggest clothing companies in the province, went into provisional liquidation.

 

Much was made of the rescue attempt at the time, with the provincial government and South African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) going to some lengths to support black-owned Rock Investments' bid to keep the factory going and save up to 600 jobs.

 

Alas, all for nought. The 80-odd employees who did manage to hang on to their jobs for an extra 12 months are out on the streets despite their best efforts. CE Wentzel Oaker was quoted in the local press saying in hindsight "we should have cut our losses sooner, but in trying to mitigate our initial investment exposure we ended up with greater losses".

 

The closure of Rockland came within days of another two Western Cape clothing manufacturers, Raoul & Caviar Fashions and Wolpe Fashions, issuing notice that they too were on the verge of going out of business. Raoul & Caviar CE Dave Burger said he was hoping a white knight investor would ride to the rescue, but he clearly wasn't holding his breath.

 

I mention these cases to highlight the central point made by Jasson Urbach, one of the guest columnists in this edition of The Exporter -- the last for the year.

 

Urbach, an economist with the Free Market Foundation, compares SA's response to the threat posed by Chinese imports with that of the island of Mauritius, and finds it wanting. SA has imposed quotas on Chinese imports in a belated attempt to protect the domestic industry; Mauritius has invested heavily in high-tech machinery and focused on niche markets to become more globally competitive. Little wonder that SA has fallen to 53rd on the Economic Freedom of the World rankings, well below Mauritius at 40.

 

There is a lot of evidence worldwide showing a direct relationship between the economic freedom enjoyed by the citizens of a country and their per capita income. Protectionist interventions such as import quotas are a direct assault on economic freedom and, in any event, seldom have the intended outcome.

 

Rather than giving the protected industry time to become competitive, they simply remove whatever incentive there may have been to become more efficient.

 

The fact that Western Cape clothing factories continue to close, despite the prospect of the Chinese deluge slowing in the new year when the quotas kick in, is an indication of the market's verdict on their likely efficacy.

 

Import quotas put excessive power in the hands of bureaucrats, promoting bribery and corruption.

 

They increase the likelihood of smuggling, which was already a problem before they were imposed. And they are more likely to prompt clothing importers to seek new sources of low-cost garments elsewhere in the world than to boost domestic manufacturers' order books.

 

Mauritian Industry, SMEs, Commerce and Co-operatives Minister Rajesh Jeetah was in Cape Town for the International Apparel, Textile, Footware & Machinery Trade Exhibition last month, ironically at about the same time that the three local manufacturers were throwing in the towel.

 

http://allafrica.com/stories/200612050869.html

 

7. Business Day, 5 December

 

Litany of questions at end of a bad year for prisons 

Wyndham Hartley

 

IT HAS not been a good year for SA’s prisons. The correctional services department and its minister, Ngconde Balfour, have lurched from crisis to crisis in what must be the most “annus horribilis” on record.

 

Remember Judge Thabani Jali and his commission of inquiry into corruption, and other criminal activities, in the prisons service? In the more than three years of his inquiry he went from prison to prison taking evidence and compiled a report thousands of pages long. Small wonder the good judge left the bench for the private sector. Few things could have been more depressing than investigating our prisons.

 

The litany of abuses takes thousands of pages to record. They range from massive fraud in the medical aid claims department to the smuggling of firearms and drugs. Not to mention the trading of youthful members of the prison community as sex objects, and warders assisting inmates to escape.

 

One of the biggest problems found was that almost the entire senior structure of the department was in the pocket of the Police and Civil Rights Union (Popcru). Jali recorded that Popcru planned who would get which jobs from within the department and recommended that steps be taken to put distance between senior staff and the union — such as establishing a separate bargaining council.

 

When the department reported to Parliament on progress made with Jali’s recommendations, it made available a summary of Jali’s executive summary. Curious that. The 180-page report of Jali became 60 pages from the department. Jali immediately complained that some key recommendations had been omitted. Sustained public pressure led to the department making the entire report available on its website. After all, public money funded the probe into a vital cog of the criminal justice system, which is designed to keep the public safe.

 

Did the department think that the MPs were idiots and could not read 180 pages, or was there another motive?

 

In recent months there have also been suggestions that high-profile prisoners with African National Congress (ANC) connections get preferential treatment in prison. Despite Balfour’s vigorous assertions that there is only one rule for prisoners, it remains a fact that both Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik followed in the footsteps of Allan Boesak and were transferred to apparently safer prisons on the day they reported to prison.

 

Now the minister is studying a report from the area commissioner and the parole board on whether or not Yengeni broke his parole conditions during a weekend pass. He has had it for almost a week. There were press pictures of Yengeni drinking — a violation — and press reports that he left his home after he was supposed to have been back at Malmesbury prison, apparently another. What’s to study?

 

Then, of course, there have been the serious allegations that a company with ANC connections virtually wrote the tender specifications for an IT contract worth R237m. How nice if we could all write the tender specifications for top government contracts, because we could exclude the competition.

 

Sondolo IT won the tender. Beeld and Die Burger reported that Titus Mafolo, President Mbeki’s political adviser; Ronnie Mamoepa, spokesman for the foreign affairs department; Gavin Watson, CEO of Bosasa, who reportedly is also a longstanding acquaintance of correctional services commissioner Linda Mti; and Seth Phalatse, the former chairman of the Strategic Fuel Fund, are connected to Sondolo IT. To my knowledge there has been no response to these allegations despite calls for a formal investigation.

 

Then consider the incident that has caused serious red faces at prisons. Ananias Mathe, a seriously bad guy facing multiple murder, rape and burglary charges, managed to escape from Pretoria’s C-Max prison. Not only is the prison deemed to be country’s most secure, but Mathe was housed in the special section reserved for those prisoners deemed to be escape risks. He could not have done it on his own. He has been recaptured, but how did he escape in the first place?

 

How does Balfour and the department respond? By spending more than R650000 of our money to take a double-page spread in the Sunday Times to say what a good job is being done and what improvements have occurred under Mti. If the message had been what was being done about, among other things, Yengeni, the Sondolo tender, and Mathe, the media would have published it for free. I know the media stand accused of never telling the good news stories, but this is ridiculous.

 

‖Hartley is parliamentary editor.

 

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A334444

 

8. Business Day, 6 December

 

Failing health of public hospitals 

Karl von Holdt & Mike Murphy

 

MOST of the doctors and nurses interviewed in eight South African public hospitals believe staff shortages and management failures compromise patient care. While professionals are reluctant to acknowledge that this entails avoidable patient deaths, clinicians at one hospital were more forthright: “Everything is done in a rush, and staff are left exhausted. The result is a low quality of care and ... mortality that could have been avoided.”

 

A nurse in a second hospital commented: “We do not give quality patient care. Now I am alone in the ward, it means I am unable to prevent certain things happening. The result is complications, wound sepsis, longer hospital stays.” This is one among many similar comments from nurses in these hospitals.

 

It seems clear, on the basis of the eight hospitals studied, that many patients at public hospitals in SA are receiving low-quality health care. Why is this the case? There are three main problems: staff shortages, a dysfunctional relationship between hospitals and provincial health departments, and dysfunctional internal management structures.

 

All the public hospitals we investigated suffer from acute shortages of staff, particularly nurses and other professionals such as pharmacists and radiographers. Nurses consistently complain of stress, exhaustion and low morale as a result of the heavy workload they have to bear: “We always have to rush: we wash, we medicate, we move on. We cannot have tea, we cannot eat. The pressure leads to absenteeism, as nurses we become demotivated and no longer have empathy. It affects the patients.”

 

The closure of nursing colleges by government in the mid-1990s is the primary cause of the shortage of skilled nurses. The dramatic reduction in training has not only reduced the supply of skilled nurses, but has also reduced the number of trainee nurses in the wards, so increasing the workload of the trained nurses.

 

But government has also made other policy decisions that have exacerbated the nursing shortage. It appears that health department authorities, under pressure from the fiscal austerity programme of the later 1990s, significantly reduced the posts for support workers like cleaners, porters, clerks and messengers.

 

However, the essential role that support staff play in most hospital activities means that this is a false saving, impacting adversely on the utilisation of scarce and expensive professionals such as nurses. For example, the shortage of nursing auxiliaries means that professional nurses have to do more routine tasks; the shortage of porters and messengers means nurses have to collect medicines from the pharmacy or move patients through the hospital; and the shortage of cleaners means that nurses have to clean wards instead of looking after patients. In the wards, managers have to cope with a daily crisis as staff shortages mean shuffling staff from ward to ward, or calling in agency staff, to ensure that at least a bare minimum of service can be rendered. This prevents them from devoting attention to the proper management of health care and resources.

 

Hospital managers are disempowered and frustrated by the centralised control that departmental officials exert over their everyday activities. Provincial head offices micromanage the hospitals and hedge the hospital managers about with endless regulations and tedious procedures. Hospital managers have little control over budgets, procurement, discipline, staffing levels and staff structures.

 

Head office officials have very little understanding of the operational complexities of running bigger hospitals, or of the problems faced by health workers in the wards. Head offices frequently make decisions that disrupt or impose failure on hospitals, or worse yet, simply fail to make decisions. The result is that hospital managers cannot be regarded as accountable for health-care failures in the hospitals, as they lack the necessary powers to change things.

 

Indeed, disempowerment and lack of accountability is rife within the health department bureaucracies, both in head offices and in hospitals. Within hospitals the key problem is dysfunctional management structures. Management is split up into segregated silos according to functions: nurses are managed by matrons and nursing managers, doctors are managed by senior doctors and clinical managers, and support workers are all managed within their own structures. The result is that there is no locus of accountability for the operations of a specific unit of the hospital, a ward, say, or a clinical department.

 

In the ward the senior nurse is ostensibly accountable for the running of the ward, but in reality she has little control over support staff or doctors. The same applies to a clinical department such as a surgical department: while the clinical head manages the doctors, the nurses, clerks, cleaners and porters are managed by separate supervisors, each in their own silo. This fragmented management structure results in a pervasive disempowerment, frustration and lack of responsibility.

 

Public hospitals are in a state of decline. All three problems identified here need to be addressed in a comprehensive fashion if decline is to be averted. The National Labour and Economic Development Institute (Naledi) has recommended: the reopening of nursing colleges; significantly increased employment of support workers so professionals, especially nurses, can concentrate on their core tasks; devolving full operational accountability for hospitals to hospital management, leaving head offices to concentrate on strategy, audits and monitoring; and replacing the fragmented silo structures in hospitals with integrated and accountable management structures.

 

The cabinet accepted these proposals in January this year. Some of them, such as the devolution of management authority, are actually longstanding government policy but have never been implemented. It remains to be seen whether this changes as a result of the cabinet decision.

 

Critically important, however, will be the allocation of realistic budgets, especially for the employment of additional staff. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s revenue overruns and frequent complaints that government is unable to spend its money seem to provide an ideal opportunity.

 

‖Von Holdt and Murphy are researchers at Naledi and co-contributors to the recently published State of the Nation: South Africa 2007 (HSRC Press). This is an edited version of their chapter. Naledi has been contracted by the Gauteng health department to assist with the implementation of a transformation strategy at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.

 

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A335285

 

9. Cape Times, 6 December

 

'Most South Africans borrow money for food'

 

By Vusumuzi Ka Nzapheza

The main reason South Africans borrow money is to buy food. This is one of the findings of a study conducted by Research Surveys to monitor financial behaviour on behalf of the National Treasury, the major banks and insurance companies.

One in five South Africans claimed they could not afford to eat properly and a third of black people said they often went without food.

Funerals, school fees and medical expenses are among the most pressing needs, while the most likely source of the loan is family or friends.

'Funerals, school fees and medical expenses are among the most pressing needs'

The survey revealed that Standard Bank's low-cost national Mzansi Account has largely contributed to 1,5 million more people having a bank account. There are now 15,9 million South Africans with bank accounts.

The banking populace still relied heavily on the traditional bank network, with two-thirds visiting their local branch at least once a month.

Mistrust of technology led to people frequenting their banks, and long queues were cited by 51 percent as a negative association with banks. Eighty-nine percent of cash withdrawals are made at ATMs and 95 percent of deposits are made at branches.

Cash is also king when it comes to paying for groceries. Ninety-one percent used cash, while a paltry 4 percent used debit cards and 3 percent used credit cards to buy groceries.

When it comes to buying clothes, 10 percent relied on credit cards.

'Stokvels remain a popular savings mechanism'

Although 20 percent of those without credit cards or accounts do not want to own one, for the majority a lack of income was the main barrier to access.

Stokvels remain a popular savings mechanism, followed by retirement annuities and pension funds.

Blacks are twice as likely to belong to a stokvel savings club as they are to have a pension or provident fund or retirement annuity.

Over half the population does not save or invest their money, either by paying off their bond faster or contributing to a burial society.

This led to Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni increasing the cost of borrowing money (interest rates) in a bid to get South Africans to save their money.

Only 10 percent of South Africans have some form of life insurance and this varies considerably by race.

Thirty-nine percent of white people have insurance, while 20 percent of coloureds and only 5% of blacks are covered.

 

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20061206033618436C239502

 

10. The Star, 6 December

 

Inequality fuels Aids scourge

 

Most of our HIV strategies focus on challenging men to change their behaviour or point a finger of blame at men

Dumisani Rebombo

 

Long before anyone heard of HIV/Aids, women and girls experienced discrimination and oppression based on gender-related factors. HIV and Aids merely exacerbated the prevailing situation of inequality and injustice in Southern Africa and many other parts of the world.

 

While analysis of gender often focuses on women, rigid gender roles affect the health of both men and women. Moreover, these roles affect the behaviours of both men and women, something national strategies and messages must consider if we are to contain the pandemic.

 

There are long standing socio-cultural factors that make women and girls in Southern Africa more vulnerable to HIV.

 

They are often less able to protect themselves or fight for their rights.

 

Rape and sexual violence are quite common in the region. Though there has been some positive changes, women are usually less educated and by extension less economically independent than men, and more disproportionately saddled with household work. Moreover, in most Southern African countries, lack of good legal structures, or their poor implementation, still allow discrimination against women.

 

The question of unequal gender relations is one of the most serious underlying factors that fuel the pandemic. For example, many women are not able to either negotiate for safer sex nor make overall decisions about their reproductive health. This leaves them vulnerable to poverty, dependency to their male counterparts, and sexual violence.

 

Socio-cultural roles affect men as well. Researchers suggest that gender is one of the most important determinants of health behaviour. Men often engage in fewer health-promoting behaviours and have less healthy lifestyles than do women.

 

Similarly, other studies document the effects of "masculine ideology" on condom usage and sexual and reproductive health in general. These indicate that traditional men's gender roles lead to negative attitudes about condom use.

 

As is indicated by a number of recent studies, these gender roles leave men vulnerable to HIV and decrease the likelihood that they will seek voluntary counselling and testing services or access medical services until they are very ill.

 

A study of anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment in Joburg conducted between April and June of 2004 reported that women accessing ARVs outnumbered their male counterparts. Many men only access ARVs when they are very sick. There are many mixed messages sent to the nation and few positive men as role models. By not teaching men to reform such behaviours, or not including them in projects, our efforts to curb the spread of HIV and Aids will not work.

 

In South Africa research shows that HIV and Aids messages have reached more than 80% of the population. Yet, why are we still having the highest number of new infections though we have adequate condom distribution rates?

 

Why do we have high rates of stigma and gender-based violence, and little behavioural change?

 

In Uganda, the central message for the nation over and above the ABC approach was that of saying no to multiple sexual partners and casual sex. South Africa sends out both messages that portray HIV as life- threatening, and those that offer hope.

 

Different kinds of messages can cause confusion, particularly when people are struggling to identify their own gender roles.

 

Swaziland has recently launched centralised HIV messaging. One set of messages talks about the need for life and the other about being faithful to one partner. I believe that this will yield a positive response from the nation.

 

I am not suggesting that we discard a holistic approach to our HIV prevention and care strategies, but am stressing the need to prioritise and centralise behavioural change messaging. Within this messaging, it is important to include strong male role models.

 

Most of our current HIV strategies focus on challenging men to stop certain behaviours, or point a finger of blame at men. This leaves men with a perception of being alienated.

 

It is also imperative to accept that men are not a homogeneous group. Therefore, an inclusive approach is one that provides spaces to work with men as solution-seekers: this is crucial. I am not suggesting that men who have perpetrated any form of violation or practiced injustice should be treated with kid gloves.

 

Rather, defining masculinity narrowly will miss the underlying factors of certain behaviours. These factors need urgent attention to fill in the gaps and redress harmful beliefs and perceptions.

 

Researchers and strategy formulators have done a lot, but I think it is time to focus efforts on increasing the capacity communities to be HIV- and gender-competent.

 

This will mean inclusive strategies that increase male involvement in gender and HIV programmes, addressing men's fears and negative beliefs and perceptions. Perhaps one or two national HIV messages that the nation can identify, that include men, will help encourage understanding.

 

Overall, as we develop these strategies, we must work to create safe spaces for men and women to dialogue, so that both genders can play their full role in coping with HIV/Aids.

 

Dumisani Rebombo is a gender activist working for EngenderHealth South Africa as a programme officer within the Men as Partners (MAP) programme.

 

The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign runs until December 10.

 

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3577743

 

11. Pretoria News, 6 December

 

Fresh Zuma charge on the cards

 

By Tania Broughton and Jeremy Gordin

The state has given its strongest indication yet that it intends to recharge African National Congress Deputy President Jacob Zuma with corruption.

It has been established that the National Prosecuting Authority has given notice to Zuma and French arms company Thint that it will apply for certain documents - crucial in the case against Zuma - to be released by the Mauritian High Court which is holding them sealed by order.

These documents are believed to include the 2000 diary of Alain Thetard, Thint's former local chief executive, who was effectively found by two local courts to have helped set up a bribe for Zuma.

Attorney Michael Hulley was not available for comment

The NPA will make the application for the documents on December 12 in the chambers of a Durban High Court judge.

The documents would be asked for in terms of section 2 (2) of the International Co-operation on Criminal Matters Act.

Both Judge Hilary Squires of the Durban High Court and a full bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) accepted - in the trial and appeal of Durban businessman Schabir Shaik - that an encrypted fax sent by Thetard to his superiors at Thint in Paris and Mauritius contained details of the request of a bribe of R250 000 a year for Zuma.

When charges of corruption and fraud against Zuma and Thint were struck off the roll in the Pietermaritzburg High Court by Judge Herbert Q Msimang, the NPA indicated it would push ahead with its "investigations" into the two parties, and would re-charge both parties some time next year, once two search-and-seizure matters had been heard by the SCA and once it had applied for the release of certain Thint documents, including Thetard's diary.

If Zuma and Thint oppose the application, the matter will probably be adjourned until next year for oral argument.

The NPA is intent on getting its ducks in a row

On Tuesday night, Zuma's attorney Michael Hulley was not available for comment but Jerome Brauns, one of Zuma's advocates, said the Zuma team had already indicated it would oppose the application and Ajay Sooklal, Thint's attorney, said Thint would definitely oppose the application.

Thetard's diary allegedly has an entry indicating a meeting between himself, Zuma and "SS" (Schabir Shaik), thus proving, according to the State, that a meeting took place in Durban between the three "co-conspirators" when a bribe to Zuma from Thint was agreed upon.

In March this year, four months before Zuma and Thint's trial, the NPA attempted to get a similar order for a letter of request for mutual legal assistance in terms of the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act.

But Judge Pete Combrinck ruled that he could not grant the order because this could only be done by the trial judge, who had not been appointed at that time.

The inability of the prosecution to get the documents was one of the issues raised in its unsuccessful application before Judge Msimang for a postponement of the Zuma trial. Other issues were the uncertainty around the legality of the search-and-seizure raids conducted on the homes and offices of Zuma, his lawyers, family and business associates and Thint representatives, and the outcome of Shaik's appeal before the SCA.

When he refused the state's application for an adjournment and struck the case off the roll, Msimang made it clear that these issues needed to be resolved.

And now it seems the NPA is intent on getting its ducks in a row and eliminating the obstacles which prevented the trial from going ahead in July. Because there are no charges pending, the NPA is using a different section of the Act which provides for the issuing of a letter of request for information for use in an ongoing investigation.

In an affidavit filed with the Durban High Court this week, investigating officer Isak du Plooy said the investigation remained current. "There is a reasonable prospect that charges could in future be re-instituted against one or more of the erstwhile accused and/or others, more particularly since the Supreme Court of Appeal has in the interim comprehensively confirmed the findings of the trial court (in the Shaik appeal).

"However, the national director has not yet decided whether to do so and, if so, on what charges. The indictment may differ in certain respects (from the original), but is likely to contain at least the charges set out (in the original)."

In an affidavit, Scorpions head Leonard McCarthy said it was important for the request for the documents to be finalised soon. "The investigation has been ongoing since 2000 and should the suspects be re-charged, they are almost certain to claim their constitutional rights to a speedy trial have been infringed."

 

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20061206030714903C187395

 

12. The Star, 6 December

 

ANC women condemn Mbeki snub

 

Undermining President Thabo Mbeki would create a state of ungovernability and set a bad precedent, the ANC Women's League said yesterday.

 

The league became the latest organisation to condemn the weekend snubbing of Mbeki at the reburial of struggle hero Moses Mabhida in Pietermaritzburg. "Our belief is that the presidency in the ANC symbolises the dignity of the ANC and therefore must be respected," the league said.

 

It urged all members of the ANC and South Africans at large to refrain from "undermining the leadership of our country and the ANC, as this will create a state of ungovernability and lack of respect for any leader of the movement and our country".

 

The ANC Eastern Cape has also condemned the behaviour of part of the crowd, while the national ANC issued a similar statement.

 

A team of senior ANC members in KwaZulu Natal will investigate whether people were urged to disrupt Mbeki's address.

 

The Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade has come out in support of the president in what it said were attempts by Jacob Zuma's supporters to create no-go areas for Mbeki. - Political Bureau

 

http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3577779

 

13. The Citizen, 6 December

 

IFP youth come out in support of Mbeki

 

The Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade has come out in support of President Thabo Mbeki in what it said were attempts by Jacob Zuma supporters to create no-go areas for the ANC leader.

 

“The IFP Youth Brigade notes with concern that the ANC continues to create ‘no-go’ areas for the country’s president in KwaZulu-Natal,” the organisation said in a statement on Tuesday.

 

On Saturday, alleged Zuma supporters attending the reburial service of liberation struggle icon, Moses Mabhida, in Pietermaritzburg, disrupted Mbeki’s speech when they shouted the former deputy president’s slogans while he was speaking.

 

In September pro-Zuma supporters embarrassed Mbeki in front of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when they staged a walk-out on the President during a function in Durban’s Kingsmead stadium.

 

The IFP Youth Brigade said it would discuss the behaviour of Zuma supporters towards President Mbeki at its upcoming national conference scheduled to take place from December 8 to 10 in Durban.

 

“The conference will finally discuss the increasingly hostile and boisterous behaviour of Jacob Zuma supporters directed towards the country’s president,” said the Brigade.

 

Other issues to be discussed during the conference include plans to transform the party into a modern organisation that would appeal to all South Africans.

 

“The conference will also discuss strategies and tactics of modernising the IFP, plans to expand the party beyond Kwazulu-Natal, and youth participation in the 2010 World Cup,” the Brigade said. – Sapa.

 

http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=28683,1,22

 

14. The Citizen, 6 December

 

DBN labour department offices burnt out

 

Police are investigating a case of arson after a fire broke out at offices of the department of labour in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

 

Police spokeswoman Captain Gugu Sabela said she could not provide any details except to say that “arson is being investigated”.

 

In a statement released earlier in the day, the department of labour said the seventh and eighth floors of its Salmon Chambers building were burnt out in a “mysterious fire” in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

 

No one was injured in the blaze that was brought under control by the Durban fire brigade.

 

Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and Compensation Fund (CF) claims were processed on the two floors, and processing of these claims would be disrupted minimally.

 

Processing of the UIF and CF claims would be moved to the Durban Labour Centre, the statement read.

 

Staff were asked to go home on Tuesday.

 

A Durban fire brigade official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that most of the damage was “smoke damage” and that the fire broke out at about 2.30am. – Sapa.

 

http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=28684,1,22

 

ZIMBABWE

 

15. ZimOnline, 6 December

 

Labour union threatens more street protests

 

HARARE – The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) on Tuesday threatened to call more street protests by workers to press for better pay and living conditions, barely three months after the union’s leaders were severely tortured by the police for calling similar protests.  

 

ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo said the union’s general council was consulting with the general membership of the union on when exactly to call the protests that are sure to be met with the same ruthlessness by the police. 

 

“There is nothing to fear. We are getting into the streets,” said Matombo. 

 

Matombo and scores of other ZCTU leaders had to be treated for severe bruises, broken arms and legs after they were beaten up and tortured by the police last September for attempting to organise protests by workers to press for wages linked to the breadline or poverty datum line. 

 

Western governments and local human rights groups condemned the torture of the ZCTU activists but President Robert Mugabe publicly backed the police for ill-treating the unionists who he accused of plotting to topple his government. 

 

Matombo said the fear of more torture by the police would not deter the ZCTU. He said: “We have reaffirmed our commitment to go to the streets to demand for Poverty Datum Line (breadline) linked wages and we are making some consultations with the workers and we expect the government to respond to some of our demands by January.” 

 

Zimbabwe’s working class is the hardest hit by the country’s seven-year economic crisis marked by the world’s highest inflation of more than 1 000 percent and shortages of food, fuel, electricity, essential medicines and just about every basic survival commodity. - ZimOnline

 

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=584

 

16. Reuters, 5 December

 

Zimbabwe labour unions slam budget, vow protests

 

Zimbabwe unions vowed fresh protests on Tuesday against President Robert Mugabe's government over a deepening economic crisis, saying last week's budget did not help workers struggling to make ends meet.

 

More than a dozen members of the umbrella Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) were arrested and beaten by police in September as they tried to march against poor wages, high taxes and lack of access to anti-retroviral drugs to fight HIV/AIDS.

 

The ZCTU said the 2007 national budget presented by Finance Minister Hebert Murerwa last Thursday had not addressed the demands of workers, who have borne the brunt of a deep economic recession.

 

"Realising that the issues raised by ZCTU as workers ... have not been acted upon, the general council ... reaffirmed its commitment to go to the streets ... " ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo told journalists.

 

He said union demands included a higher minimum wage, lower taxes and free access to anti-retrovirals for those in need of the life prolonging drugs.

 

He hinted that the labour body may stage protests as soon as January, when the budget takes effect, but said it was consulting its members about the proposed action.

 

"The minister has the opportunity to accept what we have proposed, up to January, when the (budget) implementation phase begins," Matombo said.

 

In his budget statement, Murerwa hiked the non-taxable income for workers to Z$100,000 ($400), but the ZCTU said this was still too low.

 

Analysts have said the budget offered little to halt an eight-year recession marked by record inflation of 1,070.2 percent, the highest in the world, rocketing unemployment, shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.

 

Mugabe's government has vowed to crush unapproved demonstrations and accused the ZCTU of fronting opposition interests.

 

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies mismanaging the economy and accuses powerful Western nations of sabotage as punishment for his seizure of land previously held by whites for redistribution to blacks.

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05652784.htm

 

17. Voice of America, 5 December

 

Zimbabwe security agents seize donated radios from teachers

 

By Jonga Kandemiiri, Washington Interview With Raymond Majongwe

 

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said police and suspected agents of the Central Intelligence Organization, the country's secret police, have been seizing radios donated to union members in the country's Midlands province.

 

A senior union official said members in the area reported that known CIO agents and police had confiscated the solar-powered radios without justification.

 

The PTUZ has distributed radios to members in remote areas of the country to allow them to listen to independent news broadcasts from outside of Zimbabwe.

 

Nongovernmental organizations have also distributed small portable radios to small communities through local contacts who direct radios to those who need them.

 

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe Secretary General Raymond Majongwe told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that his organisation plans to take legal action aimed at recovering the radios seized from its members.

 

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/Zimbabwe/2006-12-05-voa52.cfm

 

NAMIBIA

 

18. The Namibian, 5 December

 

War of words erupts on nurses' protest

 

Christof Maletsky, Windhoek

 

A WAR of words has erupted between the Namibia Public Workers' Union (Napwu) and the Namibia Nurses' Union (Nanu) as nurses prepare to stage a peaceful demonstration tomorrow over disputed non-payment of overtime for work done on Sundays and public holidays.

 

While Nanu described Napwu as sell-outs who failed the nurses, the rival union called Nanu "confused" and appealed to Government to withdraw their registration.

 

Nanu Secretary General Abner Shopati told a media briefing that they were well prepared for the mass demonstration to punish the Ministry of Health for ignoring their call for a meeting.

 

"The Ministry suffered the setback last week (when nurses boycotted a meeting).

 

December 6 shall be a day of history and any compromise on healthcare shall be the responsibility of the Ministry (of Health)," Shopati said.

 

Nanu has mobilised the support of the Trade Union Congress of Namibia, with affiliates such as the Public Service Union of Namibia and Teachers' Union of Namibia having vowed to support the nurses tomorrow.

 

The Secretary General of Napwu, Peter Nevonga, said Nanu's leadership lacked know­ledge of the labour law and must be brought to book.

 

"The Government administers laws and must de-register them (Nanu).

 

When you mislead people, it is tantamount to criminology (sic).

 

Once you practice criminology, you become a criminal," he said.

 

Nevonga explained that overtime payment for nurses was not reduced but only brought in line with the rest of the public service, because it had been calculated wrongly in the past.

 

"What they are claiming is that nurses should be paid wrongly.

 

We call on all our members not to be misled.

 

They should not partake in that demo," he said.

 

Nanu President Timo Geb­hardt threatened that nurses would strike if they were not happy with the outcome of tomorrow's demonstration.

 

"We don't want patients to die but if the Ministry forces us, we will go on strike.

 

That is completely avoidable if the Ministry listens to us," Gebhardt said.

 

Shopati also hit out at Health Minister Dr Richard Kamwi's meeting with nurses at the Oshakati State Hospital on Thursday.

 

Kamwi told nurses to get their priorities right by not taking part in the demonstration.

 

Shopati said Kamwi's action amounted to victimisation.

 

"Targeting Oshakati was a dull strategy.

 

Is this a Government position or his own? President (Hifikepunye) Pohamba must caution his minister," Shopati said.

 

Last week, Health Permanent Secretary Dr Kalumbi Shangula called a meeting with the Ministry's employees to clarify some issues but it was abandoned after nurses failed to pitch.

 

Shangula said his office had taken up nurses' concerns with the Office of the Prime Minister and that a circular would be issued this week.

 

Shangula said the contest was only about how the overtime calculations were done.

 

He said Government would pay back money if it turns out that nurses had been short-changed.

 

However, nurses would have to fork out if they owed the Government.

 

http://allafrica.com/stories/200612050775.html

USA

 

19. AFL-CIO, 5 December

 

‘AFL-CIO determined to restore workers’ right to organize’

 

On Saturday, AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff spoke at an American Rights at Work conference at Harvard University. Here are some excerpts from that speech, which focused on the determination of the union movement to restore the right of workers to join unions.

 

Workers in America have lost the fundamental human right to freely organize unions and engage in collective bargaining. Everyone here knows the basic facts about what happens to workers in America’s workplaces when they try to organize. I think almost everyone knows the consequences:

 

[There is a] direct correlation between 25 years of stagnant, flat-lined wages and the assault on unions.

 

46 million of us are without health care and 40 million with inadequate health care, [and] 20 percent more of us (live) in poverty now than when this decade started.

 

The AFL-CIO will convene an Organizing Summit in Washington, D.C., Dec. 8-9 to bring together 700 union organizers, leaders and activists to plan and strategize how we confront this crisis at this particular moment in history. We will talk about and review and learn from each other how to escalate our internal organizing capacity development and how to prosecute the kind of huge, non-National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) organizing campaigns that capacity development enables.

 

We’ll review and advocate for the kind of massive infusion of new resources to organizing that we saw this summer when six affiliates of the AFL-CIO put 150 million new dollars into organizing.

 

We’ll learn from great organizers like Leticia Zavala at FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee), Jim Schmitz at AFSCME and Ed Sabol at CWA (Communications Workers of America), who’ve run great, huge non-NLRB campaigns, including:

 

Cingular Wireless, where 20,000 workers joined CWA, which is now being taken to the Verizon family of employers;

 

FLOC’s North Carolina farm worker campaign, where 7,000 Mexican farm workers organized;

 

AFSCME’s effort to organize 10,000 hospital workers at Resurrection Hospital in Chicago;

 

UMWA’s (Mine Workers) successful effort to organize 3,000 workers at the Navajo Nation and our current effort to organize 2,500 Peabody coal miners;

 

The multiunion construction organizing in the Southwest.

 

We’ll look at the internal culture change at the IBEW [Electrical Workers] that is enabling the union to hire 150 new organizers [and] facilitate new organizing and growth. We will again assert and affirm that we must organize now at greater pace and scale in spite of the environment or climate.

 

We will meet with the organizing directors of national labor centers from 10 other countries to strategize a much more aggressive global effort to combat neo-liberalism and the global assault on workers’ rights.

 

We will say again that none of this is enough—that nothing we do will substitute for the free right of workers in America to decide for themselves whether to organize and bargain collectively. We will strategize and plan our effort to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. We intend to see it passed and enacted.

 

State federations and CLCs (central labor councils) made endorsements in federal races contingent on support for the Employee Free Choice Act and other organizing efforts. We’ve signed up near majorities in Congress—216 in the House and 44 in the Senate—and we helped elect a pro-worker and pro-working family Congress.

 

We know [anti-worker extremists] and employers will fight us tooth and nail, so we are ratcheting up our effort to create and train a workers’ army of shop stewards and workplace leaders…to keep the heat on Congress, to mobilize, to win this right, grow their union, hold employers accountable and elect a president who will sign the Employee Free Choice Act.

 

The fundamental source of power for unions is workers united and in motion.  The Stewards’ Army will put tens of thousands in motion.

 

We will arm ourselves with the best polling and focus group research on messaging to help withstand the right-wing assault. We will challenge our unions and our folks to re-sign 216 co-sponsors in the House and 44 in the Senate and every newly elected Democrat by the end of the year.

 

Friday, we will rally with thousands at the Capitol…to remind the incoming Congress…of the abrogation of human rights in America’s workplaces. We are determined to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. But we know we can’t do it alone.

 

We know the counterattack by the right wing and employers will be unlike anything we’ve experienced recently. They will demonize unions and our campaign and our supporters.

 

We need your help. We need your help right now. We need you to help tell the stories.  We need more research. We need you to help us make the case. We need your help to make the case that workers’ freedom to organize and bargain collectively is directly tied to a fair economy and any hope of a real struggle for economic and social justice. We need your help to make the case that workers need more power and corporations less.

 

We have to win this fight, because if we don’t we will be the first generation in the history of this country to leave our kids and grandkids less than what was left us:  less justice, more avarice, less compassion, more greed. We are social creatures, and when we use our social nature to lift ourselves and one another together, our kids and each others’ kids together, we are most human.

 

The fact that workers are routinely fired and abused for doing what we all should do is an abomination that we must end.

 

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/12/05/‘afl-cio-determined-to-restore-workers’-right-to-organize’/